Beautiful/Terrible

The sun was down now and the moon was out. I thought about how the sun and moon affected our personalities, our lives. I was a Scorpio sun, Aries moon, and Pisces rising. Allen was a Cancer sun, Pisces moon, and Scorpio rising. Together we got each other emotionally, understood each other intellectually, and let’s be honest- had amazing sex.
I had discovered astrology in the 6th grade when I was a foolish child reading Seventeen magazine. I got interested and soon enough I owned books and books on it. While I now scorned my magazine addiction I was thankful for my “spirituality” so to speak. It was actually one of the first things I bonded with Allen over.
I met him at lunch when I overheard him arguing with some kid over the benefits of being a Scorpio rising. Intrigued by the conversation, I butted in and before I knew it I sat with them for the rest of the year and found out that I had the period after lunch with Allen. The other boy was Drew.
Apparently, Drew did not appreciate the merits of a Scorpio rising, though this was probably due to his Gemini rising.
Alas, I made my first two friends and Courtney was soon to follow. I met her on a school field trip to Lake Compounce.
Lexi I met last year.
James and I met my freshman year in Biology. He wanted to be a Neurosurgeon, and Grace wanted to be with him no matter what, meaning she was planning on following him all through college and career. That’s why when they started dating she switched into his Biomed class. Personally, I thought the whole ordeal was a bit obsessive but maybe that was just my cynical outlook. They seemed happy enough.
I was reminded of my friends when my phone buzzed on the table next to Allen’s bed.
Lexi: Hey, party at Jessica Malcom’s house tonight. You in?
I texted beck: Yeah, totally. Who’s going?
I waited a few minutes before she responded: Everyone! Invite Allen, too!
“K” I wrote.
I looked across the bed to my left, where Allen was relaxing smoking a cigarette.
“Wanna go to a party tonight? It’s at Jessica Malcom’s house.”
“Sure,” he said passively.
“Can you drive me to my house, then?” I asked him. I would need to get ready there.
“Yup,” he said as he heaved himself up into a sitting position. I threw on my clothes from yesterday, and he put on what he was wearing to the party- a white V-neck, black skinny jeans, and a jean jacket. He put on some white Adidas sneakers and turned to me, “Ready?”
“Yup.”
We walked downstairs and told his parents of our plans, who gave us a hoot and let us be. We walked outside and went into his car. I could see the eyes I had painted the other day, now new compared to the cracked ones.
They were blue eyes with yellow central Heterochromia. I was obsessed with Heterochromia ever since I met Allen. They were they gaping eyes with swirling color and contrast. They were slightly psychedelic but mostly just cool.
We drove in comfortable silence.
When we pulled up into my driveway I kissed him on the cheek and we walked up to my front door. I undid the lock and stepped through the door.
I yelled out a quick “I’m home!” and pounded up the stair into my room, Allen trailing behind me. I quickly threw off my clothes and stood in front of my closet, pondering what I would wear. After much contemplation I decided on a raspberry turtleneck crop top paired with a black floral high-waisted skirt. I threw on a leather jacket on top.
I went in front of my mirror and gave myself a heavy smokey eye with red lipstick. I changed my medusa piercing to an emerald stud that matched the emerald earrings I was wearing.
I turned to Allen.
“Look good?”
“Smokin’,” he said with great emphasis on the “o”. I smiled.
It was nearing ten o’clock and I was going to start going through withdrawal soon if I didn’t get drugs in my system. I texted Lexi: What time does the party start?
Lexi: 9:30. I’m leaving soon, meet you there.
Well that settled my dilemma. Jessica was this rich party girl who always had a lot of acid on hand, so if I left now I would definitely be safe.
So we did.
We left my house with incessant hushing from my sister, who was watching TV in the living room. We climbed into Allen’s minivan and off we went.
When we arrived at the house it was well lit with loud music leaking out. We weren’t too early. We made our way inside the large mansion and were immediately caught up in the smell of weed and vomit. The party must have started at nine, not nine-thirty.
We wove through the crowd and into the kitchen- we had been here before and knew the way. Once in the kitchen I took a shot of vodka while Allen poured himself a beer, as well as one for me. I took a swig and then began searching for people that I knew.
James and Grace were probably not going to be here because it was a school night, but I knew Lexi was going to be here, and if Lexi and I were both here Courtney would probably come, too.
As suspected, I spotted Courtney being hit on by a tall stranger in the living room and chuckled to myself.
Allen and I kept searching for a while until we spotted Drew and Lexi grinding in the other living room. We walked over and said hello.
“What’s up?” Lexi asked us.
“Nothing. We just got here,” I answered.
“Same,” she said, “Jessica already offered me some LSD. You want some?”
“Definitely,” Allen said.
“Okay. I’ll go find her. Leda, come with,” she beckoned for me.
We walked together through the gargantuan house until we spotted Jessica. A few minutes and 25 dollars later we had 5 hits of acid ready to go. We pulled Courtney away from the guy she was chatting up and regrouped alone in the basement. It was quiet because it was only us, and we wanted to be left alone.
I had the acid and I passed it around to everyone. I then placed the blotter tab under my tongue and kept it there. The only bad thing about acid is that it took a while for it to kick in. After waiting ten minutes the tablet was only just now dissolving, and it would take an hour for it to kick in. In the mean time we passed around a bottle of vodka and told stories.
“One time Drew and I were fucking at his house, and his mom walked in! Obviously I freaked the fuck out because she was supposed to be at work or whatever but then it turned out to be his sister!” Lexi laughed before continuing her story, “I was so high on LSD because that was back when I did it, like, all the time.”
We all laughed at her antics and continued to drink.
An hour later the walls were moving and I was extremely fascinated with my green nail polish, which seemed so bright it was surely going to make my eyeballs bleed.
I crawled over to where Allen was sitting and took his head in my hands, trying to steady my vision. I giggled as his blue eye was intensely vivid and sparkled so brightly it was like a start. It felt like the world was shifting around us in the most comfortable way, like when you’re dizzy but in a pleasant way. My head was spinning as I leaned in and captured his lips in mine, moving in synchrony and then biting his lip. I broke from the kiss and started breaking out into laughter, amused by his distorted face. The room was swirling and I loved it.
I turned around to be met with Lexi, sliding her tongue into my mouth. I kissed her back before laughing at the silly behavior. Everyone was watching our transaction.
It was at that moment that Courtney thought it would be a great idea to run out of the basement and into the dangers of the world above. We all ran out in search for her, only to find ourselves completely disoriented and stumbling around as our vision swayed to the music, rendering us unable to run at all. I tried to walk through the crowd but each passing face was like a demon, warped and coming fast.
I stumbled and fell, unable to tell which direction was up. I felt people accidentally kick my arms or step on my foot as I laid on the floor. I tried slowly and dizzily to get up, but found that my muscles were weak and unable. Luckily, some other people began to pick me up.
I saw a pair of brown eyes appear before my own.
“Yo, your eyes are ¬super dilated, are you high?”
I shook him off of me, “Let go of me, fucker,” I snarled at him.
He let go, “Geez, no need to act like a bitch.”
I stumbled away from him and bumped right into the exact person I wanted to see.
“Courtney!”
“Hey!”
“Why’d you come up here, you’re tripping your ass off!”
She laughed, “I don’t know!”